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This article demonstrates the role of the visual arts, alongside literature, in mythologizing Masaniello (d. 1647) as hero and martyr, despite the limited role he played in the so-called "Revolt of Masaniello" (1647–1648). In addition to printed accounts of the revolt in a variety of languages, Masaniello imagery circulated on paper and canvas, in marble and wax. His likeness was illustrated in chronicles of the uprising, but he also appeared in the "fine" and performing arts, where artists of varied media continuously refashioned his persona, from 1647 well into the nineteenth century. Comparisons are made between a red chalk portrait of Masaniello by Aniello Falcone and several "Old Master" predecessors, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarotti, to reveal how Neapolitan artists consciously inserted the rebel into a visual vernacular that transcended his historical specificity. This, combined with the international circulation of Masaniello print imagery, helped to consolidate the iconography of the Neapolitan peasant, the lazzaro, during and after the Grand Tour. The birth of Masaniello brings to light the quintessential elements of Neapolitan culture: its artistic heritage and political instability, its poverty and popular culture, its spiritual fervor and alleged danger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an insight on the seismic response and seismic risk of base-isolated structures performed within the RINTC project, considering different configurations of rubber-based isolation systems. This represents an in-depth revision of past works due to the adoption of more robust and accurate isolator model. Four archetype 6-storeys RC frame buildings are examined, representing both new designed isolated buildings and existing buildings retrofitted with seismic isolation, differing in age of construction and location (the cities of L'Aquila (central Italy) and Naples (southern Italy)). All the isolation systems are designed in accordance with the current Italian Seismic Code. Seismic performance assessment is performed by multi-stripe nonlinear time history analysis. The annual failure rates for two different performance levels, namely Global Collapse and Usability Preventing Damage, are computed. The results point out that all isolation systems work effectively in limiting damage while they show a quite low margin with respect to collapse, regardless of the dominant failure mode, which is governed by the more fragile component among isolation system and superstructure. The annual failure rates derived for base-isolated buildings are critically reviewed and then compared with those obtained for similar new designed fixed-base RC buildings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper addresses the issue of contested land and the clarification of blurred rights concerning urban environments with weak public sector territorial control and the entrenchment of organized crime in the Global North. Adopting a grey spacing approach, we focus on urban informalities in the urban region of Naples (south of Italy) such as uncontrolled land use, ranging from unlawful waste disposal to unauthorized building. We argue that in-depth field research may be helpful in unravelling the entanglement of the formal and the informal, and its findings may become a resource for planning. On the one hand, this is possible by leveraging the informal in order to carry out forward-looking policies and, on the other, by channelling informal practices into suitable formal tools benefitting the public interest. In conclusion, modifying current balances and powers concerning land is a political action, as it helps treat conflicts, unravel the dispute between real and presumed rights, and uncover hidden rights in the public arena. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a short history of Italian marine biology, starting from the mid 16th century. During the Renaissance, a profound curiosity for marine sciences animated the scientific thought and several Italian naturalists started to collect rare and unusual marine items, sometimes acting with little critical sense towards medieval unbelievable legends. The 17th and 18th centuries saw a development of botany and zoology as modern disciplines and Italian scholars started to study the Mediterranean fauna and flora. They became active mainly at the Universities of Trieste, Venice, Palermo, Naples, Rome and Genoa and in other scientific institutions that arose under the different political regimes in which Italy was divided at that time. The Kingdom of Italy, born in 1861 with enormous financial difficulties, was interested in reaching an international scientific limelight: hence, some oceanographic expeditions were organized all around the world with a significant collection of data and specimens. The scientific interest for sea life increased and became at international level at the end of the 19th century, with the foundations of the first shore-based Zoological Stations in Trieste and Naples. At the beginning of the 20th century, intensive studies of inshore benthic communities by dredging and, afterwards by diving, started concurrently with those on structure and dynamics of plankton and fish populations which yielded a significant knowledge of the marine life from the Mediterranean continental platform. After the Second World War, the fundamental studies conducted at the Zoological Station of Naples on genetics, embryology and developmental biology using marine organisms as study models, were spread to different universities, going to constitute an Italian school of experimental embryology of international value. Today, the modern Italian marine biology is increasingly multi-disciplinary, requiring the participation of biochemists, geneticists and mathematicians and it opens up to new frontiers often linked to the global changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the case of the historic harbour area of Naples, considered highly significant, due to its physical and cultural characteristics, with the aim of reflecting on the contemporary need for building renewed and synergic city–port relations in a sustainable perspective. Focusing on the physical and functional city–port integration, the study investigates Naples harbour planning policy between twentieth and twenty-first centuries in order to identify the limitations of older instruments and to exam the current proposal, finally suggesting perspectives for the future. The analysis highlights the fact that, in the port of Naples, with a landlord governance, the main obstacles to a more inclusive planning policy have been related to land use conflict between on one hand the public interest of the Port Authority and Municipality and the private interest of port operators on the other. In conclusion, the need for city–port plan integration is outlined as a central planning issue so as to combine the economic development of the harbour with social, cultural and ecological themes and to overcome the conflicts between the different actors involved in the complex planning process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new interpretative framework for Galiani's monetary theory. The main argument is that, by adopting “the methodology of successive approximations” (correctly attributed to him by Luigi Einaudi), Galiani investigated the theoretical foundations of the two archetypal moneys: metallic money and paper money. On these foundations, he developed the model of a complex monetary economy based on the coexistence of a metallic and a fiduciary circulation. The paper also illustrates how the experience of the “public banks” of Naples inspired his analysis, thus shedding new light on the theoretical and institutional richness of his monetary thought. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

If we look at the demographic changes in the largest cities in Southern Italy, the most significant trend is a balance between population growth and decline, affecting in particular inner urban areas, which is due to the predominance of new ethnic inhabitants. After having described these demographic changes in Naples and Palermo, the paper will include some considerations on the 'institutional' landscape of planning and the related policies. How do planning policies and practices face this quick change in such peripheral contexts, which are new to the phenomenon? Can the plural composition of the local society be viewed as an opportunity, and not just as a threat? The paper will use some analyses of the immigrants' distribution and characteristics of housing problems as elements of discussions of the changes in the urban social structure, which can be considered as positive potential for a more equal and culturally mixed context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To illustrate how difficult endings are, this paper first cites an Italian therapist's experience of the use of time with university students in Naples and then associates to contrasting examples in the novel, art, music and the cinema. It uses a dialogue about ending in the film Brief Encounter as a possible paradigm for what is needed in brief therapy. It then refers to the work of James Mann on different experiences of time which underlie the resistance to brief work. How can brief therapy contain the paradox between finite and infinite time? Incorporating another model of therapeutic intervention with the use of Milton Erickson's attitude to time and the unconscious, the paper then moves on to a clinical example, where treatment consisted of an assessment and five sessions. Here the practice of not interpreting the transference is challenged, along with an exploration of the concept of transference to the organization and the use of pre-treatment 'maternal reverie' associations. Using the combination of informal trance-like states with a clear focus on the 'here and now', the process of the therapeutic relationship is then worked with in the case material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the exploration of proper information technologies and services to support a number of activities in web-based distance educational initiatives, and with the description of related experiments performed in some university courses of a computer engineering curriculum. These activities, usually carried out by course authors, tutors and learners, include searching and locating educational resources over the Internet, sharing and reusing them, and online delivery to the learner, possibly in a way adaptive with respect to learner's skill and preferences. Specifically, in this paper we present the work done within the project GESTALT of the European Union 4th Framework Programme, and continuing within the project EASEL of the 5th Framework Programme, to develop standard-based metadata models, which facilitate the development of efficient resource discovery services and management of learning resources. We then present the results of trials performed at the University of Naples, where the metadata models have been used and tested with the GESTALT online learning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Damage scenario and risk analyses are helpful tools for the local administrators for mitigation of potential earthquake losses at the urban-regional level. One of the main issues in developing such scenarios is the choice of proper capacity functions expressing the effective seismic supply for the existing building classes and the convolution with demand in the so-called fragility analysis. This article, as a further implementation of a recently developed mechanical based procedure for class scale quantitative risk evaluation, presents the derivation of class representative capacity curves and the relative fragility curves for slight, moderate, extensive, and complete damage states as defined by the well-known HAZUS methodology. Starting from an extensive building survey of Arenella district in Naples, southern Italy, statistics on main model input parameters are obtained for selected building classes of existing and/or pre-code RC buildings. Accordingly, a number of building models is simulated designed and analyzed in order to determine building class capacity. Fragility curves are computed simulating the fraction of “failures” within a capacity spectrum method framework. These capacity and fragility curves have been used in a companion paper by Lang et al. [2008] for the computation of damage scenarios in Arenella. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information about papers that were presented at the conference "The History of Oceanography in the Mediterranean," held in Naples, Italy in June 2008. Insights are said to have been given on the zoological station Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn. A keynote address on biodiversity in the Bay of Naples was presented by researchers M.C. Gambi et al. A film on the Atacame Trench by Della Croce and Petrillo is noted. Several papers are noted to have addressed Spain and its involvement in oceanographic history.